Hey Everyone-
My friend and I were off roading in our RX 300's when his stalled out all of a sudden in a mad deep puddle. About 2 1/2 feet deep and about 20 feet long. I used my RX 300 to tow him out to the side road, where we called Lexus Road Side and had them tow his car to Lexus of Cherry Hill, in New Jersey. The dealer said that his engine is flooded. It needs to be replaced. They say that water is comming out of the spark plug holes, and when they emptied the crank, 3 gallons of water poured out first. They said his options were to buy a used engine for $7,500 bucks or a new one for $11,000 or the mechanic says he can try to rebuild it, but isn't 100% sure that it will work for about $4,500 bucks. Do you guys have any information to provide, or any help in general would be great. The car is in excellent condition and is not worth just scrapping. What do you think? Thank you very much.
Habib

 

New or used engine replacement is probably the way to go. I assume his air intake ended up underwater and sucked water into everywhere. This would probably warp, corrode, and basically destroy everything.

The RX300 is not a very capable off road vehicle. Get a Range Rover for that.

 

I had the engine in my Avalon flooded and it had to be replaced.
Back then, a couple of years ago, the dealer wanted like 8000 for a new engine. I decided to purchase a used one. I shopped around and found one in Rhode Island on an Avalon that was totalled. I paid 1750 for the engine and about 700 for installation. The engine back then had about 45,000 miles on it. Two years later, the car is approaching 150,000 miles without any issue whatsoever.

Has your friend talked to his / her insurance company? What's his deductible? It may or may not be covered.

 

The problem bit is that air is a compressible gas, whereas water does not compress so well. When my air intake sucked in the water, the pistons were still doing their job, one of the piston arm broke and pierced the block....that is unfixable. If nothing is broke, check to see if you have water in your oil, just get the engine started again and the natural movement and combustion process will do the clean up for u.

Habib,
Let us know how he /she makes out.

 

Yeah what BIT said.... You live in Jersey, right? Go to junk yards out there or make your way to the bourghs of NewYork.. I am sure you can find a totaled RX with a good engine out there...

 

Just out of curiosity what did u use and how did u tow him out?
-Paul

 

hey what's up ... RX 300's are great, and this car handled amazingly offroading. I bet if lexus made more commercials and promo'ed the car as more rugged they'd sell even more than already ...

Well I towed his RX 300 with a tow rope with my RX 300 out of the puddle ... but I didn't want to risk getting stuck either ... so we went home, got the Land Rover Defender (btw. Defender's are much better of roading than Range Rovers) and pulled the RX 300 all the way out... Wanna here something cool though? The defender got stuck in some soft sand, cuz we lost lots of momentum, and then I used my RX 300 to pull it out. All it need was a lil nudge to get out of the hole it dug itself into, and then it hauled *** on itself.

Habib
I'll keep you all informed! Thanks again for all your replies

 

oh yeah ... the intake filter was soaking wet when we popped the hood in the trails to check it out ... so we figured water got sucked in ...
the dealer didn't tell us though if the engine was damaged. im think maybe just drain everything out and rebuild that **** up and pop it back under the hood.

another thing though, if we can find a totalled rx300 and get its engine for cheaper that'd be better than aswell...

Habib

does anyone know of any problems of when replacing engines in a car? ... like engine life?

 

Well first off you need a good engine... And after you have that you need a Mechanic that can replace a engine.. You shouldn't have any other problems after you solve the first 2.... Good Luck.

 

damn sorry to hear that... but man did you guys have a barrle of fun =)
i would love to do that with my car hehe

 

haha ... yeah man ... it was hella fun out there! i was thinking if the dealer is telling me the engine can be rebuilt but not 100% sure than atleast they know that nothing is broken like the pistons haven't shot through the block or anything or they wouldn't even give that as an option. i think we went through a puddle and some water got up in the intake and the MAF got wet told the ecu and the ecu cut the power. I highly highly highly doubt 3 gallons of water poured out from the engine...and it makes sense cuz right as we flew through the puddle the car just stalled ...

i think they are trying to rob us of money ...
what do you think?
Habib